I'm puzzled, as always, at this time of year: What's up with the Easter Bunny? I get the tradition. I get the fact that the Easter Bunny hops around every March or April bringing baskets of eggs to kids.
I like it. In fact, I love it. Do I get it? Um, no. I've long wondered: Why not a rooster bringing shiny silver dollars? Why not a collie bringing gummy bears? Or a Persian cat bringing yoyos and Slinkies? Of course, I was always right with the program when the kids were young. I always welcomed - if not celebrated -the arrival of the bunny come Easter. Heck, the Easter Bunny always brought our children enormous baskets overflowing with jelly eggs and caramel eggs and marshmallow eggs and cream-filled eggs. Often, the baskets also contained a fuzzy little chick or two, and maybe a couple of quarters.
The Easter Bunny was good to them. The Easter Bunny usually arrived in the wee hours preceding Easter Sunday, left the bounty at the foot of the children's beds, and then hopped off to wherever it lives for the rest of the year.
Sweet indeed. Just not sure, though, why we don't have the Easter ostrich. Or the Easter orangutan. Or the Easter octopus. An octopus may not rank up there with a bunny on the cuteness scale, but it would be able to carry a whole lot more baskets when making its deliveries.
Then again, since the bunny already has a claim to Easter, maybe we should institute a new tradition or two.
Labour Day, of course, is always a bit of a bummer, given that it's the de facto end of summer. Maybe we spice it up a bit by bringing the Labour Day Labrador on board? This little puppy could really crank things up a lot by bringing kids bags of jelly beans and gumdrops and bubble gum.
What's not to love about that? Then there's Thanksgiving. Sure, it's already a winner, what with the turkey and the stuffing and the pumpkin pie. But what kid wouldn't also like it to be associated with the Thanksgiving turtle? This little creature might visit in the hours preceding Thanksgiving Day, and leave behind goodie bags filled with, oh, chocolate cupcakes and brownies and sugar cookies.
Chances are, of course, there's not going to be a Labrador, an ostrich or a turtle any time soon.
What we're left with is the bunny, which is sweet and soft and no doubt crazy busy as we speak.
Don't really get it, but what the heck. It beats the Easter iguana.
